Going Home Again...

Today was a big day in Surf City, the beach town I’m staying in on Topsail Island. Today, the Sea Turtle Hospital released three injured turtles back into the ocean, including a 250-pound Loggerhead named Oceans 11, who had been in the hospital since 2009 when her shell was torn apart by a motor boat. 

When I asked where the release was, the person at the hospital gave me some general coordinates and told me to just look for the crowd. I got there a few minutes before the scheduled release time and as I crossed the bridge over the sand dune to the spot, I saw at least 200 people there for the momentous occasion. During the off season, Surf City only has 400 residents. This was the most people I’d seen in my two weeks here combined. 

There were school children, residents, tourists, turtle lovers, everything but a marching band. It was cause for great celebration. Volunteers carried Oceans 11 down on a palette before setting her on the wet sand to begin her journey back into the ocean. Two other much smaller turtles, Kemp’s ridleys named Sea Star and Blue, were released as well. I’d never heard of Kemp’s ridleys before, but now know they are the most endangered species of sea turtle.

While still being carried, all three sea turtles exhibited the exact same behavior: as they got closer to the water, they began to flex their flippers. It was as if they couldn’t wait to get back home again, to get back into the water they had so dearly missed. It would start about 15 feet from the water's edge and it happened to the turtle. 

I thought about their excitement at going back to their ocean home and I thought about the fact that I’d come back home again too on this trip. Way back in March when I started thinking about trying to spend a considerable amount of time at the beach, I didn’t even look in California, I immediately starting looking in North Carolina. To be sure, I knew that I couldn’t afford to rent an beachfront place for two weeks in California, but it was more than that... there was almost a longing to come back to the ocean I went to growing up in Raleigh (by that I mean the Atlantic, I’d never been to Topsail before this trip). I love the beaches on the Atlantic. The water is much warmer than on the west coast and the     beach area is easier to navigate (I swear, there are times when I go to the beach in Santa Monica where I feel like I have to walk a mile to get to the water the beach is so expansive).

Maybe we all yearn to return home no matter how far away we go or maybe I just have it more on my mind than usual, but as I watched the turtles, the chorus from “Home Again,” a song on Elton John’s forthcoming album sprung to mind: 

"If I could go back home, if I could go back home

If I'd never left, I'd never have known

We all dream of leaving, but wind up in the end

Spending all our time trying to get back home again"

Last weekend, one of my friends from seventh grade turned to me, as we sat on the patio looking out at the ocean during cocktail hour, and said, “You’ve been all around the world and yet you decided to come to Topsail.”  It’s true.  I had to leave North Carolina to make my dreams come true and I’ve never regretted that for a minute, but I hear the siren song of North Carolina calling me every time I come home. Just like the turtles felt today. 

Topsail Island is in Pender County so today I’m giving back to Pender County as a small measure of all the enjoyment I’ve gotten from my time here. Today’s $10 goes to United Way of the Cape Fear Area. The local United Way helps fun 22 programs across the county here, including ones that alleviate children’s hunger, a rapid rehousing program for the homeless, programs for the elderly, and many more. 

Sept. 17: United Way of the Cape Fear Area

Why I started this blog

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I studied improvisation at Second City several years ago and, as anyone who has ever taken an improv class knows, the prime rule of improv is “Yes and...”   If your improv partner says, “Things really got weird when the man wearing the tutu and tiara served me Communion yesterday,” your only option is to go with that and build on it. Otherwise, if you say, “That didn’t happen....” or something similar, the scene comes to a dead stop. 

I now think life comes to a dead stop if you don’t say “Yes and...” to the ideas that are presented to you and I have the blog to thank for that.

Part of my journey this year is to say yes more. Though you wouldn’t know if unless you knew me very, very well, I can be a bit of an Eeyore. I’m not gloomy or depressed or have my tail attached by a nail and a bow, but I often think of why something won’t work before I think of all the reasons why it will.

Three weeks ago, I wrote about how letting go of that kind of thinking led to my getting a beautiful new (to me) bed for free. Two weeks ago, I let all that go again. My friend Cathy and I were on the phone talking about the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The SHOF takes a number of songwriters each year and salutes them. It’s a private banquet and it is one of the best evenings I have ever attended. When I was at Billboard, the SHOF and MusiCares were my two favorite annual events. Any artist will tell you that he or she wants to be remembered as a songwriter more than as a performer or recording artist because a song lives on forever. It’s always a magical night, with songwriters saluting their own kind all in celebration of song. 

Cathy had written about SHOF’s upcoming induction for Billboard and I had told her that she had to get herself from D.C. to NYC for the ceremony no matter what. So three days in advance, we were talking about her trip and I was making her promise to text me all during the event. I was in North Carolina visiting my dad. It must have hit us at about the same time, but next thing you know, we were figuring out if I could meet her in New York in less than 72 hours and go with her. She emailed the SHOF to see if they had a press place for me (tickets are normally $1000/pop), I started scouring the web for a cheap airfare and texted my neighbor in Los Angeles to see if she could overnight the dress I wanted to wear to me. The old me would have said there was no way it could all work out and we still had to leave some major parts up to good luck and chance, but with a framework in place, by the end of Tuesday, I was set to fly to New York on Thursday morning. 

Of course, that day, storms came through the Northeast and flights were getting canceled and delayed left and right. Somehow, my flight, even with a change on D.C., managed to get in only an hour late. It was supposed to be pouring in New York. It was only overcast, not a drop in sight. I was supposed to be confined to a separate viewing area, I was at a table behind Billy Joel. Ever star that could possibly align did and it was all because I was willing to say yes and go even though there was a great deal of uncertainty around some areas of the trip. 

The evening was, as always, magical. I got to see artists and songwriters whom I adore like Elton John, Steven Tyler, Rob Thomas, and Joel. Seeing Lou Gramm and Mick Jones reunite for the first time in more than a decade to perform Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” with a choir,  hearing Petula Clark sing “Downtown” to the tune’s songwriter/inductee Tony Hatch and watching Alison Krauss breathe angelic life into honoree J.D. Souther’s “Faithless Love” were all supremely wonderful moments. 

This year continues to change me and I’m convinced the blog is leading the way by opening my heart every day. The connection between the blog and my willingness to jump on a plane may not be readily apparent, but it’s there and it’s something I’m tremendously grateful for. 

And I’m thankful for music and songwriters. The SHOF doesn’t take donations online, so, instead, I’m donating to a British organization called The Songwriting Charity.

Through a variety of partners, The Songwriting Charity presents one-day workshops that teach children how to write songs and record them individually and as a group. Guy Fletcher, who has written songs for everybody, including Elvis Presley, the Hollies, Cliff Richard, Ray Charles and many, many more, is the group’s main patron. Who knows? A kid who attends one of their workshops today could be getting inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame a few years from now. 

June 24: The Songwriting Charity

Why I started this blog

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Tonight I went to a small listening party for Elton John’s new album, “Diving Board.” It’s a beautiful, sumptuous album that really highlights Elton’s magnificent piano playing. 

I don’t really remember a time in my life when Elton’s music wasn’t a part of it and he’s still one of my favorite artists. They say it’s a bad idea to meet your childhood idols and, to be sure, I’ve been disappointed in a few that I’ve met, but Elton would not be one of them. I first met him eight years ago when I interviewed him for a Billboard story and we hit it off. 

I’m not in his inner circle by any means, but when we see each other, it’s always warm and wonderful. When I got laid off from Billboard, Elton was one of the first people to call me and tell me it would be alright. That’s how kind he is. He didn’t have to do that, but he knew it meant the world to me. I told my mom that Elton had called to say everything would be fine and that’s when I think she breathed a deep sign of relief and thought if Elton had said it, it most be true. And it was. 

I’ve visited him in the studio for the last two albums and interviewed him numerous times now. He’s as friendly, funny, and gracious as can be, but there’s no getting around the butterflies when I realize I’m talking to Sir frigging Elton frigging John. I still, nearly 10 years later, can’t get over the fact that he knows my name. Sir frigging Elton frigging John....

Tonight, after producer T Bone Burnett led a playback of five songs from the album, Elton came out and played three songs live, which was as great as you’d think it would be. 

Then, he admitted that he had butterflies. He said he was a “nervous wreck” to play the new material for us. It was an endearing moment. He seemed to delight in the fact that after all these decades of being a superstar, he still got a little nervous when it came to debuting the new stuff. Maybe, then, it’s just fine that I still get butterflies when I talk to him and other superstars. Maybe it’s just a sign that I still am growing and loving what I do and I’m not jaded. I really still care about how I do my job. That’s how I’m going to look at it from here on out.  If it’s good enough for Elton, it’s good enough for me. 

As much as Elton’s music will be his legacy, his legacy will also be his tremendous work he’s done for AIDS research. In its 20 years, The Elton John AIDS Foundation has raised more than $300 million and its goal is to create an AIDS-free future. Elton is a tireless advocate for the foundation, traversing the globe in search of a cure, speaking at AIDS conferences, speaking to anyone who will listen about this horrible disease. I’m proud to call Elton one of my heroes, even more so now than when I was growing up. 

April 11: Elton John AIDS Foundation

Why I started this blog

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101 down, 264 to go 

Tonight is one of my favorite evenings of the year. Each year, two nights before the Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy (the body that puts on the Grammys) holds an event called MusiCares’ Person of the Year dinner. The Academy salutes an artist for his or her musical and philanthropical contributions and other artists fete him or her by performing songs that person made famous. 

Tonight, the honoree is Bruce Springsteen, my favorite artist. The Recording Academy has been on an unbelievable roll: the past three years’ honorees were Neil Young, Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney. Among the artists who will be singing The Boss’s songs tonight will be Elton John, Mumford & Sons, Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Sting, and many more. 

It’s an intimate evening (well, as intimate an evening as 3,000 people can be) and a really great hang. There are no velvet ropes and most of the artists are very approachable. Since no awards are being handed out, there’s no pressure of being a winner or loser and everyone isn’t too tired yet from running the Grammy gauntlet (while most folks will only see the big awards show on Feb. 10, the days leading up to the televised ceremony are crammed with related events, so much so that by the time the actual Grammys roll around, everyone is usually exhausted).  

The MusiCares honoree can perform if he or she wants to and they usually do, so that means in addition to getting to see all these other artists, I’ll get to see Springsteen sing too (though it probably doesn’t technically count as my 44th Bruce show).

The evening raises millions of dollars for MusiCares, which provides medical, financial and personal aid to those in the music community. As I’ve written about before, musicians are a chronically under-insured bunch, and MusiCares is there to help from medical disasters to natural disasters, such as aiding musicians in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 

Today’s $10 goes to MusiCares. For my fellow Bruce fans, I’ll see if I can get into the equivalent of The Pit. 

Feb. 8: MusiCares: http://www.grammy.org/musicares

Why I started this blog.

39 down, 326 to go!